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One of the attractions for many people, of the celebration of Mass according to the usus antiquior is that there is more silence. I can heartily sympathise with this preference from my relatively rare opportunities to assist at another priest's Mass in addition to celebrating my own.

Interestingly, though, the ceremonies of the usus antiquior provide little in the way of pauses for silence. The "silence" that people love so much is mostly when the priest is praying secreto, that is to say, he vocalises the words in such a way that he can hear them but others don't. Thus the "silence" is a more or less determined length of time which comes to an end when the priest reaches the next part that is to be said out loud or sung.

In the older form of Mass, there are three moments where the priest pauses in silence. At the memento of the living in the Canon, he remains for a short time in silence, remembering those for whom he wishes to pray (stat paulisper in quiet…

Today's Rinunce e Nomine section of the Bollettino is quite full, with some significant appointments. There is a new Bishop for Spokane (Mgr Blase Cupich), new auxiliaries for Boston (Frs Arthur Kennedy and Peter Uglietto), a new Rector for the Lateran University (Rev Enrico dal Covolo SDB), and a new member of the team of Pontifical MCs (Fr John Richard Cihak)

Archbishop Celestino Migliore has been appointed as Apostolic Nuncio for Poland. Up to now, he has been the Permanent Observer for the Holy See at the United Nations. Mgr Ignacio Carrasco de Paula has been appointed as President of the Pontifical Academy for Life. I know that some will be very pleased to hear of these moves.

As widely expected, and now officially announced, Archbishop Fisichella has been appointed as President of the newly formed Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet (above) has been made Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

Up at Papa Stronsay, Brother Ivan of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, suggested that today, the feast of St Peter and St Paul would be a good day to go a fishing. Leaving at 3pm and returning in the evening, they caught 183 fish - the largest catch for some time. They are all now in the freezer.

Photo from Reuters pictures at www.daylife.com
Archbishop Peter Smith, recently installed as Archbishop of Southwark (and therefore my Ordinary) received the pallium this morning from Pope Benedict XVI during the Mass celebrated at St Peter's for the feast of St Peter and St Paul. This is his second pallium, since he was formerly Archbishop of Cardiff.

Here is a photo of Archbishop Longley (right) wearing his new pallium as Archbishop of Birmingham:

One of the concerns of the musicians in the Café is to liberate sacred music "from the prisons of obscurity and copyright." See the post Music Liberated by Colloquium XX for a packet of music including several items not freely available before.

Rorate Caeli has been covering the events in Belgium where the police have, quite rightly, been investigating crimes against children, following the revelations of the crimes of Bishop Vangheluwe of Bruges. The methods used by the police do, however seem over the top; they have included drilling into the tombs of Cardinal Suenens and Cardinal Mercier in the crypt of the Cathedral at Mechlin, as well as raiding the palace of the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and detaining the Belgian hierarchy for several hours.

One element of the story has caught the eye of many bloggers: the article written by Alexandra Colen, member of the Belgian Parliament for Antwerp for the Brussels Journal: The Fall of the Belgian Church. Other bloggers have warned, and I do too, that some of the sex-education material that she describes in the catechism textbook Roeach is disgusting and sick. The editors of Roeach was were Professor Jef Bulckens of the Catholic University of Leuven and Professor Frans Lefev…

Many Parish Priests or "Pastors" as they are called in the USA, write a short article each week for their parish newsletter. I do this myself, having got the idea from seeing newsletters from parishes in the US. In England we generally don't have as much space since we can't usually run to the 4 or 8 page folded large formats that they have in US parishes. Nevertheless, I think it is worthwhile for the parish priest to use the newsletter as an opportunity for catechesis.

Now and again, there is an outstanding "From the Pastor" piece, and today I received one such. It is from Fr George Rutler at the Church of Our Saviour in Park Avenue New York City:FROM THE PASTOR
June 27, 2010by Fr. George W. Rutler

Insecurity is characteristic of adolescence. Those formative years are a time of figuring out how the self relates to others, moving from self-absorption to self-awareness. There are those who live a lifelong adolescence, whose narcissism, like an orchid living…

Latest from the Via Romea blog which is currently charting preparations for the 1200 mile ride to Rome: they now have a motivational song. Though the languid gospel style acapella has its attractions, I rather think that if Joseph took the lead, Gregory could do a close harmony rumbling bass and Anna-Marie fill it out with "shoo-wap" embellishments. If they are back in time for the August parish music evening, it could be a star turn.

They have had lots of offers of help and support, even having a sports scientist preparing a training programme. I'm proud to say that our UCM is doing a strawberry & cream tea to raise money for the tent.

Don't forget to visit the fundraising page to suppjavascript:void(0)ort the designated charities.

On his Italian blog for L'Espresso, Sandro Magister writes about the reporting in various papers of remarks made by Cardinal Ratzinger on football. These were confined to one page of a book that he published in 1985. In fact, Ratzinger was not a great fan of sport. In Milestones, he describes his disappointment when Hitler changed the curriculum, cutting down on Latin and Greek to make more time for sport in school. (In the quotations that follow, you have my rough translation.)

Magister quotes the summary in L'Osservatore Romano of the future Pope's thoughts:"Football requires one to order that which is one's own to the needs of the team; it unites by means of the common objective. The success and failure of each one is based on the success and failure of the team; freedom is maintained through the order and discipline in which we learn to act together." Magister allows himself a rare moment of wry humour:"As coach of the curia, Papa Ratzinger has little…

This all sounds great fun. The Oxford Oratory blog reports that The rebels are getting closer. They are raising funds for their "Reaffirmation and Renewal" campaign.You are warmly invited to attend In(ter)dependence Week at the Oxford Oratory from 3rd-9th July. This is a week of fantastic events celebrating American culture in Oxford in aid of the Oratory's fund-raising campaign "Reaffirmation and Renewal". There is plenty of variety and everyone should be able to find an event that suits them.

It kicks off with a music festival at the Perch on Saturday 3rd July. Headlining at this beautiful pub on the Thames will be L'Angelus, a Cajun fiddle swing band from Louisiana. There will also be a host of other jazz and folk performers along with entertainment for children such as face-painting. You can buy a £5 pass which will get you 25% discounts on food and drink - all proceeds to go to the Oratory's fund.

This coming Wednesday (30 June) there will be a conference/debate on assisted suicide at the Royal Society of Medicine. See: The ethics of assisted suicide for details.

The following day, Thursday 1 July, the British Medical Association will be discussing ethics at their AGM. The pro-euthanasia lobby are trying to stack the Wednesday debate and generate publicity on Thursday morning ahead of the BMA discussion.

It would help if some well-informed pro-lifers were at the RSM on Wednesday to ensure that there is some balance in the discussion. You have to register at the website and the cost is £10. (Medical professionals can get 5 CPD credits for attending.)

Tomorrow, Gerard Hatton will be ordained Deacon. I was sorry not to be able to stay for that, but as well as the usual schedule in the parish I have a wedding and a baptism in the afternoon so we have our own celebrations here.

Congratulations to all the students who have take a step closer to priestly ordination. I am proud to have a small role in their formation.

St John's Seminary at Wonersh tonight celebrated the admission to candidacy for Holy Orders of Daniel Kelly, David King, Jonathan Routh and John Chandler. They will be ordained Deacons in a few months. Normally I find it difficult to get to Wonersh for these occasions but I was delighted to be able to come down this afternoon. I'll stay overnight for the ceremony at 8am tomorrow when several students will be made Lectors and Acolytes. Unfortunately I cannot stay for Saturday when Gerald Hatton will be ordained Deacon.

The new Candidates have all just taken (and passed) my course in Sacramental Theology so I hope that I have given them some help for their future priestly ministry. It is great to see them coming closer to ordination.

After the ceremony this evening there was a special dinner, following which the students invited me down to the "Dive" (their Common Room) to continue the celebrations informally. The television was showing the crushing defeat of the Dane…

There must have been quite a few roads undug, kitchens unfitted, currency deals undone, black cabs in the driveway, and schools closed early yesterday afternoon, judging by the numbers who came to the Rosary Social Club to watch England v Slovenia.

A few years ago the Club Committee installed a big screen with projector as well as a large screen television near the bar especially for football matches so it makes for a comfortable place to watch the matches in company with others. There was plenty of wild celebration when England scored. Some of the "naughty boys" section started up a singing of "Vindaloo" at various points, though mainly with the chorus "Na na na ..."

We even had a vuvuzela. I guessed that they must be in the shops over here by now.

An important event held recently was a special day on the Dominican Priesthood to mark the end of the Year of the Priest. Bishop Anthony Fisher OP presented a paper on the Priesthood in the Dominican Order. You can watch the address on this video:

If you prefer, you can go to the website to read the text of the paper. I was particularly struck by one comment Bishop Fisher made, not about the priests but about the brothers:Ironically, as the number of co-operator brothers declined to near-zero in many parts of the Order, everyone started using the title and the few remaining brothers were press-ganged into higher education or leadership. (In my view the demise of the brother’s vocation partly reflects the increasing middle…

First Things has today published an article by Matt Hanley: Reducing Risk, Increasing AIDS. Here are the first two paragraphs: The predominant Western approach to preventing the spread of AIDS in Africa has failed. Though in theory the risk reduction strategies favored by Western governments and aid agencies—handing out condoms, promoting counseling and testing, and treating other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) to block HIV transmission—can “work” in theory, they have not done so in practice. In Africa, despite years of promised improvements, they have not brought any downturn at all.

But a handful of African countries have actually forced down the AIDS rates, each of them by changing behavior—particularly reducing sexual partnerships—not through the heavily promoted risk reduction measures.This point will be familiar to many of you but the approach of Western governments and commercial interests has continued to mask the real picture and indeed convince the public that the Pop…

Today is the feast day of one of my patrons, St John Fisher, who is also one of my favourite saints. He shares the day with the great St Thomas More who tends to secure more attention so I make no apology for focussing on the holy Bishop of Rochester. There are some famous episodes from his life such as the reply that he gave to Bishops Stokesley, Gardiner and Tunstal, whom Thomas Cromwell had sent to the Tower to persuade him to submit to King Henry VIII, which includes the memorable words: "The fort is betrayed even of them that should have defended it." There is also King Henry's outburst on hearing the news that Pope Paul III had created Fisher a Cardinal. (See my post for the feast day in 2006)

This year, I have searched out another episode in Fisher's life. In 1529 King Henry issued a warrant to permit the legatine court to open at Blackfriars, near the palace of Bridewell. The King's purpose was to deny the legitimacy of the papal dispensation given for hi…

The Irish Dominicans have sent me news of a great event that took place recently: the solemn profession of Sr Niamh Muireann as a Dominican nun at the Monastery of St Catherine of Siena at Drogheda. The Dominican nuns also run a Dominican Nuns Ireland blog. The Rite of Profession can be found at this post. Here is a photo of Sr Niamh making her profession into the hands of her Prioress:

The priest blesses the veil which Sister wears, using the following prayer:Lord, bless + this veil which Sr N.N. wears for love of you and your blessed Mother Mary, ever Virgin, as a sign of her consecration to you. Through your help and protection may she always preserve the purity of heart that it mystically signifies. In wearing it may she be recognised as a house of prayer and a temple of intercession for all people. Clothe with your grace her entire being, so that she may love you with all her heart. May she always live in this love and be introduced one day to the joy of your kingdom, through Ch…

Fr Stephen Langridge has sent details of this National Vocations Discernment weekend - the first ever. It runs from 2-4 July at Oscott College in Birmingham and is for young men and women discerning a vocation to the priesthood or the religious life or simply wanting to find out more. There will be a number of religious communities represented. Archbishops Longley, Smith, and Nichols will be celebrating the Masses. Here is the information:Invocation 2010

Do you need space to consider what God wants you to do with your life? Are you intrigued by the possibility of priesthood or religious life? Would you like the chance to find out more?
If the answer is yes to any of these questions, Invocation 2010 could be just the thing for you! It is our first ever National Vocations Discernment weekend and it will take place at St Mary's College, Oscott - where the Pope will stay when he come to England.

The weekend will begin on the evening of Friday 2nd July and end with a special Mass cele…

This morning my postman delivered copies of the Parish Resources Booklet for the Papal visit. Since the official website has now been updated fairly extensively, I spent some time looking around. Buried rather deeply is a link to the Twitter feed @thepapalvisit and the Facebook page The Papal Visit. I was the 25th person to follow on Twitter and the 187th person to "like" the Facebook page (they have been going for a few weeks.) I post the links here because I think it would be good to get those numbers up somewhat. (It might be an idea to put those links prominently on the front page of the official website.) Do promote them on your own blog, Twitter feed and Facebook wall.

You can also get a poster and web banners (as above) though there is not yet a contact or link for papal flags in various sizes. "Bones" has already commented on merchandise of various sorts and posted a link to items on Zazzle that come up on a search for "Pope Benedict". Perhaps so…

This magnificent window at the Church of Notre Dame in Louviers, France, was made in 1490-1500 and depicts a Blessed Sacrament Procession accompanied by various candle-bearing tradesmen.

Simon Cotton, an Anglican who is part of Forward in Faith, has a short article about the window in the June edition of New Directions (page 35). He ends with this quotation from the Curé of Ars:"When we go before the Blessed Sacrament, let us open our heart; our good God will open His. We shall go to Him; He will come to us; the one to ask, the other to receive. It will be like a breath from one to the other."The issue also has an article by Joanna Bogle reflecting on a difficult year for Catholics and the hope offered by Anglicanorum Coetibus.

Recently, Prince Charles gave a speech at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, to mark the 25th anniversary of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. During the course of his address, he called for population control in the developing world. Since he had the gall to quote G K Chesterton (and indeed C S Lewis) in his speech, the Catholic G K Chesterton Society has posted a couple of pertinent quotations from the great man who was a vehement opponent of population control.Chesterton Answers Prince Charles

In 1925 Chesterton wrote an introduction to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in which he said that “The answer to anyone who talks about the surplus population is to ask him, whether he is part of the surplus population; or if not, how he knows he is not.”

Elsewhere, in an essay titled “Social Reform vs. Birth Control,” Chesterton argued that it is typically the wealthy elite who are interested in promoting population control as a solution to poverty, often simply as a means of avoiding d…

Three young people from my parish, Anna-Marie, Joseph and Gregory Treloar, are planning to cycle from Sidcup to Rome this summer by way of holiday and pilgrimage. The distance is approximately 1200 miles. As you can see from the above map, they have planned the route meticulously.

I saw Joseph this evening and told him that they must read Hillaire Belloc's "The Path to Rome" either beforehand or, perhaps even better, while they are on the journey. Gregory is currently walking round with his arm in a sling on account of a car driver opening his door as he was cycling past, throwing him and cycle across the road. He seemed to take some consolation in the damage he did to the car door. Anna-Marie is a nearly-doctor so should be able to help out with similar incidents in the Swiss Alps. I'm hoping that they will start a blog so that we can keep updated on progress.

The intrepid three have raised the money for the cost of the trip and want to use the opportunity to raise…

Fr Hunwicke, Rorate Caeli and many other blogs commented in April on the book The book entitled "The Ecumencial Vatican Council II - A much needed discussion" by Mgr Brunero Gherardini, a Canon of St Peter's in Rome, which is available in English translation. In England it is available at £14.25 from from

Carmel Books
45 Base Point
Yeoford Way
Exeter
EX2 8LB

email: enquiries@carmel-books.co.uk
Tel: 01392 824255

Carmel Books is a small supplier of good Catholic books; it would be worth having a copy of their catalogue.

Today was a highlight in the Blackfen social calendar: Our Lady of the Rosary School Fête. It is a great opportunity for people to meet up with old friends. As well as the children currently at the school and their parents, many former pupils and parents come along to meet up again. It is a kind of live "Friends Reunited" and much better than the online version. I was talking to one young man that I first knew when he was a child at the school and was rather pleasantly taken aback to hear that he is now in the second year of his Law degree.

The stalls seemed to be loosely organised into various topic-focussed areas. The industrial scale barbecue, candy-floss, cakes and teas were in the playground. For throwing things, there was the coconut shy and the crockery smash. Children wishing to look outlandish could get their hair sprayed bright colours or their face painted to look like spiderman, a tiger, or simply the St George's flag. There were several Tombolas: for teddies…

The Resistance Campaign has a petition against euthanasia and assisted suicide. As well as signing it yourself, please check whether your MP has signed it (or refused to do so) by using the MP database. If neither, do use the email form to urge them to sign the petition.

Here is the text of the petition:We the undersigned fear that calls to legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia are likely to intensify. Our concerns are heightened by the current economic climate and calls from politicians from all parties for cuts in public services.

We believe that people who are disabled or terminally ill (and their families) rely upon such services to live with dignity and that quality services make the difference between a fruitful life, led independently, and mere survival.

We support Not Dead Yet’s call to all MPs to sign up to the ‘Resistance’ Charter 2010 (full text here) declaring that they will support palliative care and independent living services and maintain legal protection for all pe…

On 18 June 1871, the Ladies of the Royal Court of the King of the Belgians gave a tiara to Blessed Pope Pius IX in honour of the 25th anniversary of his pontificate. It may also have been given by the devoutly Catholic King as a gesture of support for the Blessed Pio Nono after the loss of the Papal States the previous year.

The tomb of Blessed Pius IX (above) is in the crypt of the Church of San Lorenzo fuori le mura; when Fr Briggs and I are in Rome, we go to make a visit. He is a great devotee of the saintly Pontiff and knows far more about him than I do. Over lunch today, he did not mention the auspicious anniversary of the Donation of the Belgian Tiara, which makes me think that he was sparing my blushes at being so ignorant.

I very much hope that the Mgrs Ganswein and Marini persuade the Holy Father that the restoration of th…

Mac at Mulier Fortis has some posts on the recent Pilgrimage to Lourdes undertaken by the parishes of Our Lady of the Rosary and St Mary's, Chislehurst. She also has a large collection of photos at her Flickr photostream. (All the photos in this post are from there.) Above you can see a young pilgrim from my parish carrying the flag which I had made for our Lourdes Pilgrimages. We are at the start of the torchlight procession, waiting for it to begin and others to find us. Below is a photo from later in the procession.

Fr Briggs has sent me something written by one of his young parishioners:Lourdes is a place I'll never forget. It gave me a new love of the Rosary and I had never learnt so much about Bernadette. I found it better than I had expected: all the churches were beautiful, and each was unique. Some had the Rosary and some had the saints. The Stations of the Cross I admired the most. I loved how they were bigger than life-size, and they looked amazing.

Yesterday, Anna Arco posted her interview with Archbishop Nichols concerning the papal visit. His Grace rightly draws attention to the importance of the meeting of the Holy Father and Queen Elizabeth. That will surely be one of the greatest photo opportunities of recent times.

There is still considerable frustration about many aspects of the visit, and particularly the failure to organise a major event which people can attend en masse. Of course we can watch it all on the television and I arranged a while back for the big screen in the parish club to be reserved for the duration of the visit, but we can, after all, watch footage of the Pope most days via the Vatican's YouTube channel or EWTN. People want to be able to say "I was there" not "I watched it on the telly".

Apparently there will at least be the possibility of lining the streets: it is important for Catholics to do so in large numbers, cheering, singing and waving flags. (Now would be a good time to …

The Latin Mass Society sends news of its forthcoming Training Conference for priests. The Society of St Tarcisius is running a training course for servers to run concurrently. Here is the information from the LMS: LMS Residential Training Conference for Priests Wishing to Learn the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Traditional Latin Mass) at Downside Abbey, Somerset.

The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales (LMS) is organising a residential training conference for priests wishing to learn the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Traditional Latin Mass) at Downside Abbey, one of England’s most prestigious monasteries.

The conference will run from Tuesday 10 to Friday 13 August 2010 and will feature Traditional liturgies in Downside’s beautiful chapel together with a Gregorian Chant schola and polyphonic choir.

Expert tuition in the celebration of Mass in the Usus Antiquior will be provided on a small group basis. There will be tuition in Low Mass, Missa Cantata and Missa Solemni…

The Good Counsel Network has Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament during the day as often as possible. It is an essential part of the GCN ethos that prayer, fasting and adoration support the work of the counsellors who try to offer compassionate and practical help to women seeking abortion, so that they are able to take the decision not to abort their child. Every day they deal with some of the hardest cases of crisis pregnancy and have a remarkable success rate in persuading women that there is another way out.

This afternoon I was there to give Benediction at the end of the day's adoration and had the opportunity of a sneak preview of the latest newsletter which was being stuffed into envelopes afterwards. The recently started blog Maria Stops Abortion is one of their latest initiatives in education which is also an important part of the work of the GCN. (The title of the blog is a pun on the name one of the largest abortion providers in the UK, Marie Stopes International.)

The Oratory School in South Oxfordshire was founded by Cardinal Newman. Nine years ago, the school chaplain, Fr Anthony Conlon, revived the Blessed Sacrament Procession. This year on 10 June, the Octave Day of Corpus Christi, he carried the Blessed Sacrament in Procession in the school grounds, assisted by Fr Irwin as Deacon.

The canopy was carried by the House Captains of the school. The Procession was given a Guard of Honour by the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) of the school (which recently had its biennial inspection.) The Ceremony was competently assisted by the many servers who have been trained by Fr Conlon.

"Present Arms" Officer saluting Pupils and servers kneeling in adoration House Captains with the canopy
Many thanks to Linda Coupland who runs the school's Marketing & Public Relations for sending me these superb photos taken by Jim Keogh. You can click on them to enlarge them.

Back in January, the English translation of the lecture given by Mgr Guido Marini at the Rome Conference of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy was published widely on the internet. Fr McGavin, editor of "The Priest", the Journal of the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy sent me the above file with Mgr Marini's lecture printed in the journal. You can read all the articles in the special March 2010 edition of "The Priest".

Michael Cowie writes to me of an event to be held by Aid to the Church in Need at the Birmingham Oratory on Sunday week. Here are the details:The Light of the World
Sunday, 27th June at 2:00pm, followed by Mass at 5:30pm
The Oratory, Hagley Road, Birmingham B16 8UE

An opportunity to hear first-hand accounts of the challenges facing Christians around the world – and how you are helping. Talks begin at 2:00pm, followed by Mass at 5:30pm.

We are delighted to welcome Father Samir Khalil Samir SJ as our guest of honour, speaking on Christianity and Islam in the Middle East. Father Samir is an Islamic scholar, Semitologist, orientalist and Catholic theologian based in Lebanon.

Xavier Legorreta, Aid to the Church in Need’s Latin America Projects Head, will report on how your generous support has helped victims of the earthquake which struck Haiti in January.

Fresh from project trips, UK Director Neville Kyrke-Smith will speak about the Faith in Ukraine, while Head of Press and Information Jo…

My sister just rang me to check that I was still alive since she hadn't seen anything on my blog for a few days. I realise that it is almost a week since I posted. Sorry about that - still alive and posting again now ... not too much this evening though as I have to read 5000 other blog posts first on google reader :-)

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It was not until my first year at University that I became aware that some converts were unhappy about making a qualitative distinction between converts and cradle Catholics. I was told that the comparison was usually to the disadvantage of the converts.

Until then, I had just admired converts because they had found their way to the faith and taken the trouble to go through whatever steps were deemed necessary in their local parish before being received into the Church. My youthful reading included John Henry Newman, GK Chesterton and Ronald Knox, all of whom I enjoyed immensely; they helped me to have a certain reverence for the category of people “converts” and it simply would not have occurred to me to think of someone as a second class citizen in the Church as a result of their having made a conscious adult decision to join it.

Later, I came to understand how much of a price some converts had paid in their family and social lives for becoming Catholic. As a priest, I have had the…

On the feast of St Ignatius, I offer my prayers and good wishes to some great Jesuits. Just off the top of my head, I think of Fr Joseph Fessio SJ the founder of Ignatius Press which has not only published the English translations of various works of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict, but has also given a break for good Catholic authors both of theology and of Catholic fiction. Then there is Fr Bob Spitzer SJ, with whom I studied in Rome many years ago, and Fr Paul Mankowski SJ who has written some superb articles over the years. Here in England, I recall Fr Anthony Meredith SJ, the great fatherly commentator on the Fathers of Cappadocia and in Rome, there is Fr Gilles Pelland SJ, the fierce French-Canadian patristics scholar was a bit harsh when I first arrived in the Holy City, but seemed to soften a bit when after 5 years he seeme satisfied that, though English, I was not a modernist.

Many of my Jesuit priest friends and mentors have now reached “that night when no man can work” an…

Like the French with Gallicanism, the Americans have been unfortunate enough to have a heresy named after them. Americanism was the name given to a loose collection of erroneous opinions related to minimising authority, in teaching, spiritual direction and religious life, and in cultivating a too radical separation of Church and State. In his encyclical letter Longinqua Oceani of 1895, Pope Leo XIII condemned the view “that it would be universally lawful or expedient for State and Church to be, as in America, dissevered and divorced.” (n.6) and went on to say that “[the Church] would bring forth more abundant fruits if, in addition to liberty, she enjoyed the favor of the laws and the patronage of the public authority.”

Some time ago, at an academic conference on Liturgy that featured contributions from people of various different faiths, I was interested to chat to a Reformed (or Liberal) Rabbi who was frank about some similarities between the controversy within Judaism over liturgy and some of the things he had heard about the reaction to traditional Catholic liturgy. He also lamented wistfully that it was his younger worshippers who wanted him to offer the prayers in Hebrew and face the same way as them when praying.

More recently, I found this guide on Judaism 101: Jewish Liturgy setting out the differences in worship that a visitor might find between the various movements within JudaismIn Orthodox synagogues, women and men are seated separately; in Reform and Conservative, all sit together. See The Role of Women in the Synagogue.In Orthodox and usually Conservative, everything is in Hebrew. In Reform, most is done in English, though they are increasingly using Hebrew.In Orthodox, the person lea…

I go to Confession twice a year, at Easter and Christmas because I feel I should. My I find it difficult to know what to say as I no longer seem to be assailed by the temptations of earlier years. One priest told me rather irritably not to come to Confession if I had nothing to say.
I am sorry to hear that a priest was irritated with you. Say a prayer for him asking the Lord to give him the virtue of patience. I don’t agree with his advice. In your letter, you spoke of another priest who encouraged you to go to confession more frequently. He is on the right lines, I think. People who go to confession frequently usually remember more to confess. This is not because they are greater sinners but because their conscience becomes more sensitive to venial sins. This is not some kind of morbid “guilt” but a desire for holiness in small things. When you say that you do not have the temptations you used to have, perhaps you are thinking that the sacrament is only for mortal sins.